Bag with spring closure



I. ALTER BAG WITH SPRING CLOSURE Filed April 18, 1936 RDN Y H EH 40o v m@ m 8 0 4| Y n ,1B M 7 c www. ww 7. 1

Fame 22, QZ?.

Patented .lune 22, E93? s'r'rss PATENT OFFICE 12 Claims.

'I'his invention relates to spring closure constructions such as incorporated in the openings of bags, purses, pouches and pockets for carrying various articles, as for example, cosmetic 5 appliances, money, smokers articles, keys and the like. f Among the objects of the invention is to generally improve the construction of spring closures of the character described, and to provide 10 such constructions comprising few and simple parts which shall be easilyassembled, relatively inexpensive to manufacture, which shall form neat appearing and conveniently operated structures, which shall be readily opened and closed 15 yet remain in opened or closed position in a positive manner, and which shall bepractical and efcient to a high degree in use.

Other objects of this invention willin part be obvious and in part hereinafter pointed out.

This invention accordingly consists in the features of. constructions, combinations of elements and arrangement of parts which will be exempliiied in the constructions hereinafter described and of which the scope of application will be in- 25 dicated in the following claims.

In the accompanying drawing' in which is shown various possible illustrative embodiments of this invention,

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of a bag 30 or pouch embodying the invention and showing the spring closure in the closed or shut position.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the improved bag or pouch shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional; view taken on 35 line 3--3 in Figure l.

. Figure 4 is a top plan view similar to Figure 2, showing the bag or pouch with the spring closure in open position.

Figure 5 is a. top plan view of the spring mem- '40 bers removed from their incorporated position in the bag or pouch structure, and

Figure 6 is a fragmentary top plan view of a modied form of the riveted or hinged connec.

tions for joining the opposite ends of the spring 45 members.

' Referring now in detail to the drawing, I0 de notes'a bag or pouch with spring opening and closure means constructed to embody the invention. The bag or pouch I may be formed with 50 a body or pocket portion II for enclosing cosmetic appliances, smokers articles, money, keys or other objects such as carried on a person, said body II being formed of a suitable textile material, rubber or rubberized cloth, leather or sub- 55 stitutes thereof, or of any moisture-proof sheeting. Said body or pocket portion II may be made of tubular material, or of one-piece folded over sheeting, or as shown, of two separate pieces which are sewed or cemented with inturned seams along the opposite side edges IIa andbottom edge IIb in the well understood manner.

The top opening of the body or pocket portion II may be hemmed as at IIc and IId, so as to enclose each length of a pair of slightly bowed, flat strip steel spring members I2 and I3. The opposite ends of said members may be secured together by any suitable hinge means, such as rivets I4, there preferably being provided a. space between the members I2 and I3 suiiicient for the thickness of the material formed by the hems IIev and IId. These hems may be secured by cementing or as shown, by stitching I5.

Pull tabs I6 and I'l are provided along, the mid-portion of the hems IIc and IId, respectively, for serving as finger grips to facilitate opening and closing the bag I0 in the manner hereinafter described.

1The utility and operation of the improved bag or pouch I0 will be apparent. After constructing the bag or pouch I Il in the manner described above and shown in Figs. l to 5, inclusive, the bowed steel spring member I2 which is a little longer than the bowed member I3 is swung through an are of 180, said member being joined by rivets I4, as shown in Fig. and incorporated in the hems IIc and IId,respectively. It is seen that the width of said members when in closed or shut position extend parallelly disposed and in angular relation to the plane of the body II, as shown in Fig. 3. It should be noted that the body I I is so constructed that the rear side thereof hasthe hem IIc extending therefrom in such a manner that said hem IIc overlaps the hem IId, the back side of said body II therefore is made slightly longer than the front side thereof, the differences being practically the Width of each hem.

From the closed or shut position of the bag or pouch I0, shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, said bag I0 may be opened by simply grasping the tabs I6 and Il between the thumbs and foreflngers of the hands of the user and pulling or drawing the same away from each other, the result being the pivoting of the bowed, steel spring members I2 f and I3 for completely opening the bag, as is clearly shown in Fig. 4. Since the longer spring member I2 is then bowed in a relatively opposite direction to what it normally is when the closure is shut, the pouch opening takes a circular shape which increases the bowing effect of the shorter member I3 from its normal, arcuate bowed position, shown in Fig. 5, to a semicircular shaped position, shown in Fig. 4.` Said spring members are then bowed in opposite direc- 5 tions and retainl this open position since they vlie in the same plane and their extreme ends beyond thev rivets I4 extend in opposite directions as seen from Fig. 4.

To close the open bag or pouch, the members I2 and I3 are simply swung toward eachother and it.wil1 be found that as soon as said mem bers are swung a short distance that the cooperative spring action therebetween will automatically act to complete the closure, the hem IIc being brought to overlap the hem IId. The

closure then is not easily opened through accident because of the overlapping of the hems. A top fold I8, formed along the top edge of the closed bag or pouch IU, it should be noted, is thus provided to retain the contents and help forni a seal to prevent the passage of the contents between the closure hems llc and Hd.

In Fig. 6, a modified form of the spring closure means is shown. Here spring members 22 and 23 have their ends slightly oifset towards each other so as to space said members along the portion thereof to which the hems llc. and I Id are adapted to be attached, the spacing distance corresponding to the thickness of the material used in making the body Il. These offset portions may be secured together by suitable rivets I4 as shown.

As seen from Fig. 2, the finished bag or pouch I 0 may have a curved shape corresponding to the shape of the pocket in the users apparel when it is found desirable to carry the bag or pouch I0 in such pocket.

It will thus be seen that there is provided a bag, pouch, purse or pocket in which the several objects of this invention are achieved, and which is well adapted to meet the conditions of practical use.

As various possible embodiments might be made of the above invention, and as various changes might be made in the embodiment above set forth, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth or shown in the accompanying drawing is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A bag construction of the character described comprising a pocket body portion having a top opening, a pair of spring strip members disposed to extend in parallel relation along the edge of 'said opening, pivotal means interconnecting end portions of said members to permit one of said members to be swung in and out of said parallel relation with respect to the other member, said pivotal means being so constructed and arranged that the swinging movement of said member serves to resiliently bow both members for shaping said opening into a retained substantially circular form.

` 2. A bag construction of the character described comprising a pocket body portion having a top opening, hems formed along the edge of said top opening, a pair of parallelly aligned spring strips extending throughsaid hems and normally positioned in overlying relation to hold said hems in abutment for closing said opening, pivotal means extending at right angles of said strips interconnecting the adjacent end portion thereof, said strips being swingable out of said alignment `onsaid pivotal means for resiliently bowing both strips, one strip being bowed into a retained 'spacing said members apart', the unoffset portions of said members extending -through said hems for bringing the latter in abutment to close said opening, pivotal means extending at right angles to said members for securing the opposite end portions thereof, each of said members being swingably mounted with respect to the other on said pivotal means, said members being movable out of said normal position for resiliently bowing each of said members in opposite direction to retain said hems separated.

4. The bag construction dened 1in claim 2 having means carried by said hems for opening and shutting said spring closure means.

5. The bag construction defined in claim 3, in which finger gripping tabs extend from the mid-portions of said hems for applying a pulling force on each tab in relatively opposite directions for opening said closure means.

6. A bag construction of the character described comprising a pocket body having a top closure, a. pair of spring members secured to the edge of said closure, spaced pivotal means on opposite ends of said members, said members being swingably mounted with respect to each other on said means for bowing said members when in an open position, portions of said members adjacent said pivotal means coacting to serve as means for retaining the bowed members in said open position.

'7. A bag construction of the character described comprising a bag body having a top opening, a pair of elongated spring members sel cured to the edge of said opening and normally to resiliently bow said members, said means extending at right angles to said members and located to retainthe bowed members separated.

8. In a spring closure construction of the character described,.a pair of spring members having means at their opposite ends permanently and pivotally attaching said ends together, said springs normally being substantially straight, said members being so constructed and arranged with one of said members pivotally mounted for movement in and out of the plane of the other member, said member when pivoted out of said normal straight position being bowed, and coacting means formed with the ends of said members to provide a se` *retained substantially cir- .cular shaped structure when said members are bowed.

9. In a spring closure construction of the character described, a pair of spring strip members disposed to extend in parallel relation, pivotal means permanently interconnecting the ends of said membersto permit one of said members to be swungin and out of said parallel relation with respect to the other member, and means to retain said members in substantial circularshape,

spears? said means formed by the coaction of said spring members and pivotal means so constructed and arranged that the swung position of said member out of parallel relation resiliently bows both members into said retained substantially circusiliently bow said strips into said retained shape when moved out of the normal position.

11. In a spring closure construction of the character described, a pair of parallelly aligned spring strips having oiset terminal portions for spacing said strips apart, pivotal means securing the offset portions inwardly from the ends thereof, each of said strips being swingably mounted with respect to the other on the pivotal means, and means on Vsaid strips for resiliently bowing the latterinopposite directions when moved out of said alignment.

12. In a. spring closure construction of the character described, a pair of spring members of unequal length normally' assuming a curved shape in closely spaced parallel relation with re- -spect to. each other, pivotal means interconnecting with adjacent portions of said members in wardly from the ends thereof, said members being so constructed and arranged with one of said members swingably mounted on saidl means for 'movement outv of saidv normal position to cause the ends of lone of said strips to bear on the other -for resiliently bowing into a retained shape the other of said members inY a relatively opposite direction with respect to 4bowing of the rst" member.

ISADQR ALTER. 

